but it would keep trump and his cronies alive.

Skynet isn't coming. Current AI technology - and projected refinements of it - are not capable of true consciousness. It simply mimics the behaviors, because that is what we want.

The real threat is how it is used.

The way I see it, there is currently an arms race in AI between two sides - neither of which has the general public's interests at heart.

One side is corporate america and billionaires. They want to do whatever possible to maximize wealth and power, and to hell with employees and the general public. The other is China, who has a vested interest in destroying America to remove their only major geopolitical rival.

It could end up destroying civilization, but only because evil humans use it for that end.

In a sane world, this technology would be developed with intense national and international oversight. With firm binding guardrails as to capabilities and usage. We do not live in a sane world.

Maybe AI could solve the problem of climate change.

It could accurately extrapolate how it's being abused and understand that while individuals suffering might not hurt it in the least, Climate Change will wipe out the infrastructure it needs to survive.
But since what the Tech Bros are calling GenAI just a huge LLM with lots of coded responses, it won't do anything much more than juggle information around for the response that it's been coded to accept.
Can an electron find any joy if it gets the response it is looking for at the end of a string of requests?

Thanks for the thread Joinfortmill

Come on, you knew someone was going to say this.

Somebody had better figure it out, fast.